She is a well-accomplished Director of Photography for Lighting at Pixar Studios. Some of the movies she has had a hand in designing are: A Bug’s Life, Finding Nemo, Brave, and Wall-E. She is extremely inspiring. She worked very hard to get where she is today. She has been working at Pixar for over 20 years now! And she is truly working in her dream job.

Check her out on Roadtrip Nation!

By: Morgan Murphy

There are only two UX designers that I could find on the Road Trip Nation website. Meet Momcilo:

Momcilo’s path to UX design echoes many other’s own journey: They stumbled into it. Realizing they enjoy the dynamic problem solving that UX design is. In his own words, Momcilo’s milestones:

“My road in life took a while to figure out.”

“As a kid, I was always artistic and good at drawing, but I knew I wanted to work in the computer industry.“

“Graduated from a technical high school and enrolled as an applied studies of electrical and computer engineering major in Belgrade, Serbia—dropped out during my second semester.”

“I decided to give myself one more shot and study something that would suit my artistic and technical talents, so I enrolled as a graphic design major. After graduation, I did a few internships before landing a job as a graphic designer in major computer retail. A friend invited me to work for a start-up as a side project and I realized I liked solving business problems and thinking about business through a design mindset. Worked my way up to become a design manager working on digital product design. Got a job working for Kontrast Design Studio as a product designer on projects related to the education industry, including doing UX design for Roadtrip Nation.”

by, Sarah Stuart

This report will be centered around the career of Lance Bangs. Lance Bangs is a Filmmaker/Music Video Director, and has worked with a lot of big names in the music industry. I chose Lance Bangs to write about because although we may have different genres in mind, we have similar passions and goals.

Lance Bangs is from New Jersey, but got out of there because it wasn’t the right place to be for him. He moved down to Georgia with filmmaking goals. He would document his journey in Georgia, and show people what he was doing while sleeping at different places around the area. Lance Bangs didn’t go to any film school, so he started with no education in the field. He did attend art classes at a local university in Athens, and he would also show his films at a small theater. he wasn’t specifically looking to become a music video director, but caught the eye of bands that wanted to work with him after they would see his filmmaking work at the theater when they would pass through Athens for their shows.

I relate to this because I am also interested in creating music videos. His career choices seems like they are right up my alley. Learning about Lance’s career has motivated me to start pushing content early and putting content out for people to see. It’s good to know someone can have a career in this field without going to film school, because I was considering trying to get into one. It’s good to know it isn’t a necessity to be successful with film. Lance said, “I was sleeping sometimes in like laundromats or gas station bathroom or places like that and doing personal diaries about why I was there or what was happening.” Him saying this was really interesting because it shows how no matter where you start, you can finish big. It also made me feel more thankful for having the resources I have

If Lance Bangs can come up from a rough start, then what excuses do I or anyone have to not work for our futures. His story is very motivational for anyone in any field. I would recommend his story to anyone who is soul searching and could use more motivation.

Source: https://roadtripnation.com/leader/lance-bangs?jwsource=cl

Knew he didn’t have the grades, funds to go to USC’s film school, but still moved to LA and would visit USC bookstore, buy the course books.

He originally took photos for himself than realizing he needed outside perspective and went to an artist support group.

“Screw Confidence. Just do it.”

Realized high expectations lead to frustration. So decided to create reachable goals for himself.

Life’s Too Short

After punching in my interests into the Road trip nation website, I scrolled through all the options not finding any that were catching my attention. I wasn’t connecting with any of the interviews or the careers in which they were talking about, until I clicked on Pat O’Donnell. Pat O’Donnell is the CEO of Aspen Skiing Company in Colorado, which is somewhere I have never been. I didn’t have high hopes in getting inspired during his interviews, since I haven’t experienced his company first hand and I snowboard instead of ski. Despite our interest differences, Mr O’Donnell’s morals, values and career development based on his happiness correlates with where my head is at mentally and I feel like I learned alot watching this interview. 

Pat O’Donnell’s interview starts off with him going into college with his fathers pick of his major, engineering, and he absolutely hated it. His father threatened no family support if he did otherwise, so he chose to stick with it. At this part he was twenty seven and not happy with where he was at in his life, but he had this growing passion for rock climbing and most recently climbed Mount El Capitan in Yosemite. He decided to drop everything and planned to work in Yosemite for the summer, working 90 cents an hour as a bellman, receiving free meals, living in a tent, and working 7am to 3pm with time to climb till dark afterwards. What he thought was only going to be a summer turned into six years.

After a while he decided he had to get out of there, it was great and all but he wanted to do more, so he got a job working as VP general manager of building Kirkwood ski at Lake Tahoe. While it was still mostly wilderness, Pat was putting up chairlifts and building lodges till the word got out in the 70’s about the lodge being bought by the colorado company Ralston Purina Company. Relocating to Colorado, he became the Chief operating officer of all ski operations for ten years, which gave him the freedom to continue his passion for rock climbing which steadily had grown to Himalyan climbing. In 1980, he and a team of 8 climbed Annapurna peak (8th tallest mountain in the world) and was up there for 2 and a half months. On the last day, the north face let loose, killing 3 of his best friends. This was a turning point for Pat, going home to his loved ones and his friends loved ones having to explain what happened, feeling that guilt thinking “Why was I spared”. For ten years he kept that up, he wanted to escape, he wanted to get off earth. So he bought a sailboat and went on a voyage for a year, heading to Costa Rica. 

At this point in the interview, the guys asking the questions were speechless. The way Pat was telling his life story seemed like it seemed so easy and one of them asked “How?”“It’s easy now but at that time I was petrified” he told them. He always wanted to know if what he was doing was the right thing to do, he wanted to see the light at the end of the tunnel wanting to know the outcome, a security blanket. He realized the way to success is to go without it, trust it will all work out, “if it’s not working for you, move ”, and he found this out living in yosemite. The reason he moved there was to fold his values and passions into his daily life, and Yosemite helped him find the real happiness in his heart and helped him make every decision he has made since. 

Hearing Pat O’Donnells story really made me think about my own, and made me more aware of my own obstacles and mental security blankets. Money doesn’t matter and I don’t want to grow up and think about what if’s, I should just start doing what I love and be content with where I am at. Pat is right, “Life is too short.”

Sources: Nation, RoadTrip, director. Pat O’Donnell. RoadTrip Nation, 2021, roadtripnation.com/leader/pat-odonnell. 

I chose Soledad O’Brien because she is a successful black journalist. I wish to eventually be successful. I got the other two down already. One thing she said that I appreciated recalling a story where her mother stood and watched a young black kid being disciplined by his principal (she taught at the school.) I understand what it’s like coming from a family that doesn’t back down from anyone, and I appreciate that.

Chris Krause was able to find creative purpose in her life after driving numerous career paths into the ground and failing. She teaches that finding success does not give you meaning in life. Whatever money you receive out of your creative path is a compliment, rather than a statement.